Dawn & Glyn's Real Life Wedding

Dawn & Glyn - Summer Wedding

Dawn and Glyn chose St Laurence's Church in Upminster to get married. Dawn remembered going there at junior school to see the old memorial plaques and thought that was the church she wanted to get married in.

They wanted a venue that they'd never been to a wedding reception so booked to view Gaynes Park Barns. From the minute they drove up the driveway they both loved it. "It felt as if we were in the middle of country, although it was only a 20-minute drive from Upminster town centre. All the staff at Gaynes Park Barns and the Wedding Office were extremely helpful even from the initial inquiry we made, and throughout the whole wedding planning, the assistance they gave us was amazing. Everyone made you feel like an individual, rather than just another wedding."

Dawn had five little bridesmaids ranging from 2 years old up to 8 years old. They all wore pink and white dresses from Forever Yours at Belissima Weddings in South Woodham Ferrers. They all said they felt like princesses and looked beautiful. The two ushers wore suits from Hugh Harris in Woking. Glyn saw the suits at the National Wedding Show at Olympia. The two pageboys also had matching suits. All the men's ties were from Marc Wallace in Parsons Green, London.

Dawn's dress was a real princess dress. It was a white strapless dress with pink flowers embroidered on the bodice and skirt and a very long train! Again this was from Belissima Weddings. As there was quite a lot of detail on the dress, Dawn wanted minimal accessories, but decided the week before the wedding to have a tiara. She also treated herself to Gina shoes (perfect excuse)!!

The bouquet was made of baby pink and white roses with glitter on the edges of the petals and diamantés in the centres. The bridesmaids all had mini versions of the bouquet. The buttonholes were also the same roses with glitter and diamantés.

Dawn & Glyn wanted white cars to match the theme and found 2 1950's white Rolls Royces which on the day had pink and silver ribbons. The bridesmaids' car had a fold down roof and luckily the rain stayed away so they managed to have the roof down on the way to the reception.

The main reception room had pink and white balloons scattered around it and the trees at the entrance were wrapped with fairy lights. The chairs were covered with white fabric with pink bows which really made the barn look amazing. Everyone commented on the centrepieces and they actually looked even better than imagined. Each table was decorated with a glass box filled with silver coloured stones which had the pink and white glitter and diamanté flowers on top and a pink ribbon round the box. The box was placed on a square mirror with tea lights around the edges. Several guests took them home and are using them as centrepieces for their own tables with candles instead of flowers.

The favours matched the stationery which was from Wallis Designs and called "The Happy Couple". They were boxes with a boy and girl(s face 'designed to match Dawn and Glyn's hair colours) filled with chocolates from Hotel Chocolat - one of Dawn's favourite shops! To keep with the fairytale theme, the wedding cake was a fairytale castle with a carriage. The bottom layer was fruit cake and the rest was made of sponge and carrot cake. The children all enjoyed eating the carriage after dinner!

"It's really hard to choose the best part as there were so many. Seeing the kids enjoy themselves at the crèche set up by Artfull Splodgers was great - and it meant the Mums and Dads got to relax more too. I really enjoyed all the pampering in the morning as well - I was slightly worried about having the five young bridesmaids getting ready with me but they were all so well behaved on the day."

When asked if she had any tips for future wedding couples Dawn says; "I worried too much about all the tiny details, for example it took ages to decide on the canapés, but on the day I don't think I had any as we were too busy having photos taken. I also worried about who sat with who on the tables for dinner but everyone got on so well, even if they hadn't met before. Also I had heard so many brides saying how quickly the day goes so enjoy every minute, but still really didn't expect the day to fly past as quickly as it did. On the Sunday afterwards I wanted to do the whole day again - I loved every minute of it."

Images courtesy of JCM Photography

Suppliers:

Bride's dress - Belissima Weddings, South Woodham Ferrers
Bride's accessories (veil, tiara, shoes) - Tiara from Belissima Weddings, South Woodham Ferrers. Shoes were from Gina.
Groom's suit - Hugh Harris, Woking.
Bridesmaid's dresses - Belissima Weddings, South Woodham Ferrers.
Other outfits (ushers, maid of honour, pageboys etc) - Hugh Harris, Woking ( Ushers and Page Boys ). Ties were from Marc Wallace, London.
Wedding rings - Tiffany's and Hyde Park Design in Hatton Garden
Wedding cake - Maria's cakes, Upminster
Flowers - Glitter, Chingford
Cars - Vintage Cars, Hertfordshire
Invitations - Wallis Designs, Cornwall
Wedding list - We asked for money to decorate our bathroom.
Disco/DJ - Richard Palmer
Wedding favours - Wallis Designs, Cornwall and Hotel Chocolat
Photographer - JCM photography, Brentwood www.jcmstudios.com